Pinera favoured as Chileans due to vote

Chileans will vote in presidential elections on Sunday to choose a successor to Michelle Bachelet.

ReutersNovember 19, 20174:44pm

Chileans are due to vote for a new president with billionaire conservative Sebastian Pinera the favourite to win, although a crowded field of leftist challengers are likely to force a December runoff.

Opinion polls show Pinera, who was president between 2010 and 2014 and leads the Chile Vamos bloc, with a commanding lead over his seven mostly left-of-centre rivals, but still shy of the 50 per cent needed for an outright win.

Former TV anchorman, Senator Alejandro Guillier, is the flagbearer for President Michelle Bachelet's fractured centre-left Nueva Mayoria coalition. He leads the race for second place, with around 21 per cent of likely voter support compared to about 42 per cent for Pinera, according to a CEP poll last month.

Sunday's election is the latest in South America to pit left-leaning leaders against the conservatives taking their places.

It also marks a turning point for Chile's coalition of centre-left parties, previously known as the Concertacion. The pact, which for decades has dominated Chilean politics, fissured under Bachelet, riven by disagreements over policies such as loosening Chile's strict abortion laws and strengthening unions.

Bachelet, who is barred from running in this election by term limits, will step down with approval ratings near 30 per cent and the legacy of her social and economic policies uncertain.

Pinera, the market favourite, campaigned on a platform of scaling back and "perfecting" Bachelet's tax and labour laws, seen by many as having crimped investment at a time when slumping copper prices were already driving down economic growth in the world's No.1 copper producer.